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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28685826">animal.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/tommynetic/pseuds/tommynetic'>tommynetic</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Minecraft (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 07:02:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,569</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28685826</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/tommynetic/pseuds/tommynetic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
      <p>a lonely town.</p>
    </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>animal.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>a lonely town.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>there was never a happy ending. clay knew that. ace knew that. but they stood, in shock of their burning town, holding hands as a way to comfort themselves. clay stood in silence, as he stared at the other, whose emotions were vacant.</p><p> it was raining.</p><p>clay always loved the rain. </p><p>though the fires kept roaring, harder, more aggressive than before. he was hungry. he was tired. holding onto ace's hand was the only thing keeping them up. eventually, ace let go, there was a sense of regret. ace couldn't open their mouth for a while, the red, orange, and yellow seeping into their eyes. burning into their brain. no matter how many times they wanted to look away, they couldn't. no matter how many times they wanted to rub their trembling friends back, they couldn't bring themself to look at clay, not out of any hatred. they couldn't look at anything but the fire.</p><p> no matter how many times they heard wilbur let out a shaky cry. a cry that wouldn't go away, a cry that was stuck in their head. a cry that was screamed out, due to pent up anger and regret. a lot of it. it has been going on for such a long time, that clay's voice began to go hoarse. the way their voice vibrated due to their weak trembling body. they were terrified, it was obvious. they just wanted their older sibling. they wanted sayko. they just wanted a hug. please, only a hug. ace stared at the fire, they had tuned out the younger boys crying. they tried to ignore it, the boy was barely a teen, about to reach his 14th birthday. they didn't know who his parents were, therefore the village he was from picked him up as their own. at least, that's all clay would tell them. just this year, sayko had been the kindest towards the youngest there. the boy had matured greatly. though, a little bit back, clay started acting weird, around the time the whole war started. they would sneak off, talk to gregory for a split second, and if gregory mentioned anything regarding the situation they would shut down, get irritational, and then run away. it had gone on for months, as well as gregory's obsession with rotten flesh, which would get them mad. but...</p><p> that's not the same clay standing in front of ace. this clay was shaking, cold even though the fire was blazing, their hand felt frozen like you had been holding an ice cube. this clay was trembling, crying hard. crying harder than the rime he got his finger smashed by a rock, crying harder than they did when wither skeletons were chasing after him. this was a different clay. </p><p>"I'm gonna go...Before Gregory finds us up here." ace sighed out, before looking back at clay, all was seen was his dark brunette hair, staring at the destruction. "you coming?" ace questioned, although they let go, clay's hand was loosely gripping onto their finger, like a child wanting a shield. "clay?" ace questioned once more before clay's shaky hands pulled them into a hug. shaking, they held onto the back of ace's armor. "ace, i'm gonna get killed by them you can't just leave..."</p><p> "clay...just come with me." ace narrowed their eyes. to be fair, they understood clay's panic, however, they weren't the best with emotions and couldn't exactly help their dear friend. however, clay's shaking just slowed them down. however, ace gently rubbed their back, sighing heavily, shakily, but heavily. they stood there, the sound of the high pitched ringing from their heads being fuzzy in their ears, the dancing flames of their town, all was in the background for a bit.</p><p>however, the crackling of the fire always brought them back. and the cold teenager clinging onto them. </p><p>--------------------------------------------</p><p>ace had taken clay to the top of a nearby hill, the place that wasn't affected by the fire. they went back to get them some blankets. the younger half-ghost teenager left alone. they sat on the edge. staring at the baked steak in their hand. he gently put it up to his mouth, before taking a small, weak bite. but no matter what he did, it wasn't in the luxury of his home.  it wasn't in their ravine. he spits the chewed up food off the edge, causing him to cringe at the weird goop-like texture as it fell. it has never been the same when he ate out. now, it never will be. never. it was all because he didn't want things to end up like this. </p><p> there was a silence, before a sound filling the area around them. the sound of the wind moving in a repeated pattern. the flapping. of wings...perhaps? as soon as they jumped up, due to the immediate click in their mind, they couldn't even turn around.</p><p>"What's up Clay?" the familiar, sibling tone of voice rung into clay's ears. causing them to flinch, the voice burning itself into their veins.</p><p>"s..sayko?" the teen called out, gently getting up and looking around, only to see sayko sitting on a branch, their expression was emotionless, but also disappointed at the same time. the expression that they had when tricia was making their speech, that expression they had when they were bored. disappointed. however, as they got down, there was a sense of security. sayko gently placed a hand on the slightly younger boys shoulder, before whispering. </p><p>"what did you do?"</p><p>the fear shot through clay once more, causing them to try and squirm away. they succeeded, but only because sayko had let go of them. they narrowed their eyes anxiously, before seeing sayko's friend, penn right behind the tree, listening in. clay knew sayko wasn't dumb, in fact they were the complete opposite.</p><p>"I...i don't know everything went so fast and i--"</p><p>"clay."</p><p>"I.." clay was at a loss. they were in the wrong. they set fire to the fucking town. no matter how much they want to sugar coat it. this was awful. they were awful. they were sick. they were always so so so sick. mentally. this was worse than the common mental episodes they had gone through, they burnt down their home. they burnt down everyone else's home. they burnt down the happy couple, jul and bowe's, home down. clay stared at sayko with a thought before their eyebrows furrowed, and they turned to sayko.<br/>---------------------------------------------------</p><p>sayko and clays conversation was lengthy. there were periods of silence, screaming, anger, confusion, and especially tears. most of it was on clay's side, they were loud and emotional. occasionally with sayko shutting them down by speaking with a disappointed tone. sayko knew clay valued their judgement, so they were using that fact to use.</p><p>"clay, you catered to a war. you could've ignored it! i had it handled. penn and I had it handled, and you and ace went and set it to fire!" sayko spoke, waving their hands around. they were starting to get more upset then before. this wasn't the clay that everyone made friends with. clay was shy, always afraid to speak his mind. this clay set fire to their homes, and even though they were panicking now, sayko knew they felt nothing for it. though they has been an older sibling to clay forever, everytime clay wouldn't look them in the eyes made them upset, due to the fact sayko could never tell when clay was lying to their face. because liars never kept eye contact, but sayko always knew how awful their eye contact was in general.</p><p>clay glared at the ground, the background of fire wasn't helping their situation. </p><p>"it's always you and Penn that have it handled. see-- see now that's the thing, sayko!" clay shoved sayko by their collar bone. "you think you guys know everything because you're all high and mighty! you always know how to manipulate the situation that way everyone's on your side! but you don't need us, your "power" that you flaunt around can easily kill us all! it goes to your ego!" </p><p>"I'm not the bad guy. that's what you want yourself to think, you want to blame everyone but yourself for your actions. why don't you go blame jul while you're at it?! go blame it on ace, or on tricia, but the thing is, you have no ground to stand on!" sayko pressed a finger to his chest, causing him to step back each time. "you ruined this all, because you were selfish."</p><p>sayko was right. that wasn't just the way they worded it, but they were right. as much as they couldn't admit it. as sayko stared back at him as they walked away, and threw an ender pearl into the forest.</p><p>clay stared in anger. they stood there looked around, at the ground, at the trees, not even noticing the fire approaching them, rapidly. he stared at the netherite pickaxe in his hand, before throwing it into the forest.</p><p>"well, you know what?! fuck off sayko!" he knew sayko didn't hear it, so he fell to the ground, he wondered where ace was, they sat on the hill, they knew what was right behind them, but they had lost all motivation to move. eventually, the hot air consumed them, they sniffled before crying out. "I hate this fucking town."</p><p>GHOSTIIELAYWERR burned to death.</p>
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